Game Patch for February 23, 2016 - UI and Balance

By -Netput - 23rd February 2016 - 08:37 AM

Hi all! We've got a pretty meaty patch set for release tomorrow (Feb. 23). Several pesky new bugs you've submitted to us (thank you again!!) were resolved, and this time we tweaked the balance on the factions.

Expect the patch to go live around 11am CST tomorrow. Once your game's installation is updated, please be aware that it may take an hour or two for in-game features to show the correct status, including leaderboards, replays, etc.FEB 23, 2016 PATCH NOTES:FACTIONSSHROUD

The community has sown that the Shroud suffer from early game rushes while being dominant economically outside of the early game. For the past few weeks we've been discussing various changes to address these issues without making the opposite side worse.

The key changes we've made is that the Shroud Entity (HQ) is significantly weaker with both armor reduction (and eventually health in a future patch). This makes the HQ vulnerable when a player is aggressively taking over the map. Before a Shroud player might welcome an attack on the HQ as it buys more time to build or rebuild other areas of the map. We are hoping that now players can go after the Shroud HQ aggressively and early eliminating the Shrouds capacity to build more buildings.

We do not express that this will have a large negative impact on the Shroud early game because there isn't a lot of armor penetration early and by the time a rusher can target the HQ from a strategic sense, the game is likely already over.

In terms of improving the Shroud in the early game, we've gone back to their Plasma Spike. We've made it easier to get earlier, and slightly more effective once it is created. This puts the risk of a rush back on the rusher. While the rusher can just back off leaving the Shroud player with a sunk investment, the Shroud player still has options that can be explored, including new ones such as quick tech behind the Spike.

We are excited to see what you think! Specific changes can be seen below:

Entity Armor reduced to 6 (was 10)

Plasma Spike per tick damage increased to 4 (was 3); overall +2 DPS

Conversion time for Plasma and Tether spikes reduced to 18 seconds (was 24)

Conversion time for Perception Spike reduced to 18 seconds (was 32)

Dirge no longer goes through level up animation after seeking in a replay

HUMAN

The big issue is we lowered the cost of teleporting turrets to allow human players more defensive flexibility early to align with their play style and racial identity. Here are some others resolved:

Teleport cost for all turrets reduced to 10 (was 30)

Valiant shields are no longer left behind when a Valiant is pushed by a placed structure

Valiant no longer pushes Extractors when its Shield is Projected

Units are now able to be killed with Ctrl+K when under a Valiant shield

GOO

We improved the Goo siphon to help improve Goo versatility in the mid and late game. Here is the specific change:

Siphon damage and healing increased to 7 (was 6); overall +2 DPS/HPS

Alt+Q will now select the first Mother Goo if another Mother is already selected

OBSERVER / REPLAYS

Tech Upgrades now have researched tooltips in Observer mode

Player view of a defeated player in Observer/Replay mode is now completely visible

Replays can now be filtered by player name in the multiplayer replay menu

CAMPAIGN

Enemy bases (AI) now contain refineries on Campaign Mission 14 and 15

Difficulty now remains on the same setting after Surrendering

UI / MECHANICS

Encyclopedia scroll bar no longer extends past the boundaries when reaching the top or bottom

When a Player overrides an unusable save file, the old one is now overwritten

Completing a loaded skirmish no longer results in Connection Lost on the debrief screen

Player's ranking now appears accurately in the Recent Matches display

Player can now see through Fog of War central spigot on Ziggurat when in plain sight